


magic market

by shibecafe



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Fluff, M/M, unfinished fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-25 02:08:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22128322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shibecafe/pseuds/shibecafe
Summary: Since Mark’s grandmother passed away, the shop has become more popular for its eccentric staff, as opposed to anything like location or wares.Comprised of a witch, a human, a phoenix/ghost duo, a kitsune, a water spirit and a mer, their business is kind of all over the place. With the variety in staff comes a variety of patrons, which is how Mark meets some extremely odd people.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 32





	magic market

**Author's Note:**

> it's me, back again with the unfinished and never to be completed fics!!!!

From childhood, Mark has always known that he’s nothing extraordinary. The biggest indicator of his complete regularity is his abandonment, along with his incredibly low magic threshold and habit of tripping over nothing but air. If anything, Mark is probably considered below average in most ways. Taeyong likes to say that it means Mark is in for something big in the future, and Johnny just calls him a massive loser. With fondness!

He’s so entirely unextraordinary that he never even bothered to continue studying his magic, instead opting to take over his grandmother’s store, living a comfortable and peaceful life with two people he kind of considers his proxy-parents. He supposes considering a phoenix and a ghost as one’s kind-of parents is rather odd, highly unorthodox, so maybe he isn’t as boring as he likes to say. 

Mark’s grandma’s shop is well-known to local magic users, and even non-magic users, for its unusual location. The entrance is situated in a little corner of Itaewon, slightly hidden but easy to find if one knows what they’re looking for. The door is in Itaewon, but the shop itself is located deep in a forest in some unknown place. Though, since Mark’s grandmother passed away, the shop has become more popular for its eccentric staff, as opposed to anything like location or wares. 

Comprised of a witch, a human, a phoenix/ghost duo, a kitsune, a water spirit and a mer, their business is kind of all over the place. With the variety in staff comes a variety of patrons, which is how Mark meets some extremely odd people. 

Odd people like Lee Jeno and his necromancer-shaman boyfriend duo. Mark isn’t sure how Jeno became a regular when he’s, well, human, but when he had the pleasure of meeting Jeno’s boyfriends, it started to make sense. 

Which leads to Mark’s current predicament; Jeno, Renjun and Jaemin invading Mark’s space as he tries-  _ tries _ , so hard - to sort ingredients for Ten. 

“I’m telling you, Mark hyung. To get business flowing a bit smoother, you’ve gotta start selling premade spells.” Jeno always says this, without fail, every time they get onto the topic of days being slower. No matter how many times Mark reminds him that there’s no one in his employ  _ capable  _ of making spells like the ones Jeno suggests.

“And I’m telling  _ you _ , Jeno. That would be fantastic if there was anyone here who could make spells like that!” Sure, Mark can find some lost things or change his hair colour with a simple spell, but Jeno likes to suggest big things like teleportation spells and omnilinguistics. It just won’t happen. Jeno’s a sweet guy, but he just refuses to accept that Mark’s magic is really low level. 

Jeno groans. “ _ Find  _ someone then, dude!” Jaemin slaps a hand over his mouth before Jeno can say anything more. When Jeno looks away, Mark takes the opportunity to flee outside, away from his stupid regular customers. 

They aren’t actually stupid, nor does he really think they’re stupid. Actually, he kind of totally adores them, if he’s honest. But sometimes they’re just a bit too much for him. When the 3 of them become too much, Mark usually finds himself retreating into the forest for a little while to recharge. The denizens of his forest are generally pretty calm and sweet, so he has no qualms with spending hours outside talking to the creatures. There’s a few he prefers talking to, though.

There’s Kun, the water spirit who kind of adopted Mark and decided to help out in the shop. Sicheng, the Chinese Kitsune that helps collect wares that Mark can’t access himself. Yangyang, the mer that lives in the giant lake and teaches Mark to control his water element. Jisung sometimes stays in the forest when he misses home, but he’s an untethered tree spirit so he usually just roams. 

When Mark sits at the edge of the lake, Yangyang pokes his head out. As per usual, he looks kind of breathtaking, all shimmery and water soaked and golden. “Morning, Mark,” Yangyang smiles, a ridiculously pretty smile, and Mark feels at ease. 

“Hi, Yangyang.” He kind of wants to complain about how he’s getting no work done, but it’s kind of his own fault for being a doormat, so he steers away from that conversation. He thinks for a second before deciding on a course of action. “Have you seen Johnny hyung anywhere?” 

Yangyang tilts his head back, and Mark is momentarily distracted by the sun shining on his collar bones. “No, not today. Why? What’s up?” 

Mark coughs. He doesn’t particularly want to tell Yangyang that he wants Johnny to scare Jeno into leaving, since Jeno doesn’t know that Johnny’s a ghost, so he says; “Ghost help.”

“Ghost help?” Yangyang raises a brow skeptically. Mark avoids his eyes and laughs awkwardly. “Well. Good luck finding him! Try getting in touch with Ten or Taeyong? He might be at Ten’s.” 

“Why would he be at Ten’s?” Last time Mark checked, those two were ridiculously awkward around each other. Yangyang gives him a blank look. Mark says, “Actually, I don’t really want to know. Thanks though. Oh, also, can you tell Sicheng hyung that i need those crystals I sent him to collect by Friday, please?” Yangyang smiles and nods, before disappearing back into the depths of the lake. 

With Johnny being in the void indefinitely and with no way to contact the ghost, Mark decides to just hide and wait until Jeno gets dragged out by Jaemin and Renjun. Mark stares blankly at the door to the shop for a moment. 

Another day, another avoidance game. 

* * *

3 days later, Mark finds himself sprawled over a table in Ten’s cafe, Johnny sitting next to him and Taeyong sitting across from them. 

“Should we start selling spells?” Mark’s been thinking on what Jeno said. Maybe there’s  _ some  _ merit in Jeno’s ideas, after all. Mark isn’t too sure, but maybe… 

“No,” Taeyong says as Johnny openly laughs his ass off. Mark opens his mouth but shuts it immediately. 

Taeyong sighs. “Mark, I love you, but your magic just isn’t strong enough to make any spells worth selling. This idea is good in theory, unrealistic in practice.” Mark deflates. He pushes around the condensation his drink left on the table, dejected.

After a few seconds of silence, Johnny speaks up. “Who even gave you that idea?” He narrows his eyes. “Was it Jeno?” 

“Um, it might have been Jeno, yes.” He coughs. “Just, forget I said anything. Taeyong hyung, how’s all the book keeping going?” Mark cringes at his own awful segue. Taeyong raises a brow, but answers anyway. Mark tunes out, looking over at the counter instead of paying attention to Taeyong and Johnny. Ten is smiling, chatting with two customers as he makes their drinks. One of them is tall, with striking features and a wide smile. The other is… ridiculously cute. Wide, warm eyes, a bright smile, the softest looking hair… Mark thinks he’s pretty gorgeous.

It’s this moment that Mark regrets tuning out of the conversation with Johnny and Taeyong, because Johnny starts laughing loud enough for Ten and the two guys to look over at them. Mark shushes Johnny, face bright red. Johnny laughs harder. “Does our little Mark think that boy is  _ cute _ ? Do you wanna get to  _ know  _ him?” 

Mark flushes even more, if he can, way more embarrassed than he really should be considering he did nothing wrong. Johnny snorts. 

“Shut up, Johnny! I don't.” He hisses. “He’s just… pretty.” 

“ _ Just  _ pretty?” Johnny smirks. 

“Yes! Leave me alone, man. He’s pretty and I’ll never see him again.” He’s whining. Mark’s face gets exponentially hotter when Johnny snorts even louder than before. He tries to hit Johnny’s arm, but the ghost discorporates right before Mark makes contact, causing the witch to crash into the table.

As he hits the tabletop, Taeyong and Johnny break down. It takes a couple of minutes for Taeyong to calm down enough. When he does, Mark shoots him a pleading look. Taeyong sighs. “Come on, Johnny. Quit it.” Mark smiles smugly at Johnny, but frowns when Taeyong continues. “Let the kid have a crush.” Johnny cackles.

“ _ Hyung, _ ” He has no dignity. Here lies Mark Lee, low level witch, beloved by none, killed by his two best friends. The world is cruel. He can’t trust anyone. Not even the two guys who raised him. Unbelievable. Disgusting. Unfair. 

When Mark looks up, he makes eye contact with the pretty boy. If possible, he’s even more mortified than before. The boy looks half amused, half annoyed, and Mark’s heart stops in chest. Cute boy looks away. Mark turns to Johnny and Taeyong, heart resuming its rapid pattern. Hopefully he never sees the boy again. 

* * *

Of course, Mark sees him again. The universe hates him, clearly. It’s a week after the cafe incident, a week filled with Mark having intense contemplation about moving to Germany out of sheer embarrassment. Bottom line is that Mark is still mortified. He hasn’t been to visit Ten since, instead opting to ask Kun to take Ten’s orders to him so he doesn’t have to face Ten’s potential teasing. Being teased in the group chat after Johnny spilled about the incident is enough for him, thank you!

He’s in the middle of restocking shelves when the front door chimes loudly, signalling the entrance of a new customer. 

“One minutes, please!” He calls out. He places the last three jars on the shelf and wipes his hands on the rag from his pocket. After spending 6 hours collecting and restocking the wares of the shop, Mark knows he probably looks like he’s been crawling through a muddy cave for a year, but most patrons don’t really mind, so he isn’t too worried. 

When he steps out from behind the shelves, Mark comes face-to-face with the customer. He stumbles back before he can collide with them. He doesn’t even have time to offer an apology when the customer snorts. Dread makes him hesitant to look up, and when he finally does, he wishes he’d put Taeil on for this shift. 

Standing in front of Mark, in all his glowing glory, is the insanely cute boy from Ten’s cafe. Mark stares for a second, maybe for too long, before he starts to function again. 

“Uh,” He beings eloquently.  _ Get a grip,  _ he thinks. “Welcome to Super _ mark _ et. How… can I help you?” He feels so stupid saying the shop name, as per usual. It’s a stupid pun that Johnny made when Mark was a kid, and his grandmother was so enamoured with the terrible pun that she changed the store name to it. 

Mark is sure he’s bright red. 

“Are you Mark?” The cute boy asks, tugging a piece of paper out of his pocket. Mark nods. “Great! I’m Yuta’s apprentice. He needs some shit, and said you’d be able to get it all for him.” He talks as if Mark should know who Yuta is, but he doesn’t.

He’s too embarrassed to say anything, though, so Mark just gently tugs the paper from the apprentice’s grip and starts to read through it. It goes like this;

1\. 63 CRUSHED RUBIES   
2\. 12 JARS OF SPRING WATER   
3\. 46 VERTEBRAE FROM A HOWLER   
4\. 20 HANDFULS OF GROUND EMERALD GRANITE   
5\. 90 IVORY RODS   
6\. 200 MINCED ETTIN RIBS   
7\. 67 JARS OF JADE DUST

Baffled, Mark jerks his head towards the apprentice. “You know this will be ridiculously expensive, right? Like, 600,000 won kind of expensive?”

“It’s not coming out of  _ my  _ bank account, so that isn’t my problem. I’m just the middleman.” He shrugs.

“God, okay, hang on. Give me a second.” Mark runs up the stairs, past his and Johnny’s rooms, and into Johnny’s nest. “Hyung!” He calls as he barges through the door.

And it promptly scarred by Taeyong and Johnny making out. 

“Oh my God,” He whines. “We talked about this! Discorporate the door when you’re being gross!” 

Taeyong clears his throat, ears glowing red. “Do you need help, Mark?” 

Mark looks out from behind his fingers. “Yeah. Big order. Help needed. But not from you! Not anymore. I’ll go ask Kun instead. Bye.” He bolts before Johnny or Taeyong can say anything. He bows hastily to the apprentice -whose name he really needs to catch, so he can put it on the receipts- as he passes him. Stepping through the back door proves to be kind of difficult when Jisung tries to enter at the same time. 

With a sigh, Mark waves at the kid but keeps walking. When he reaches the lake, he kind of feels like ripping his hair out. All he wants is some damn help. He flicks a smooth summoning stone into the lake. “Kun hyung!” He yells. “Kun hyung, help me out!” 

It takes a stressful minute, but Kun materialises from the water with a smile. “What’s up, Mark?” The spirit frowns when Mark shifts restlessly and tugs at his shirt. “Hey, come on. It’s okay. Tell me what you need help with.” 

Mark inhales sharply. “Massive order. Really huge. I need… a lot of help to sort it. We haven’t had an order this big in a long time and I kind of don’t know how to deal with it.” He waves the slip of paper around. Kun places a cool hand on Mark’s shoulder, and Mark stops his restless shuffling. Kun smiles again, taking that paper from Mark. 

“Alright. Let’s sort this together, okay?” Puffing out his cheeks, Mark nods. 

Perhaps, with some help, he won’t embarrass himself in front of the incredibly cute customer again.

**Author's Note:**

> tell me your thoughts in the comments, or if you’re shy, you can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/shibecafes), tumblr and [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/nezha)!!!


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